Unprecedented 5-Week Shutdown... No Answer to COVID-19

Study and Care Gap Period
Rather Wish School Had Started

Sending to Emergency Care
Doubtful if Child Safety Can Be Ensured

Family Care Leave Exists
But Already Used Up, Feeling Helpless

Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] "I wish school would just start already."

The situation has become one where people are eagerly waiting for school to start rather than for vacation. Due to the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), kindergartens, elementary, middle, high schools, and special schools nationwide are closed for a total of five weeks until the first week of April. The Ministry of Education initially announced on the 23rd of last month that the school opening would be postponed from March 2 to March 9.

Contrary to expectations that schools would reopen in a week, following the second postponement, a third announcement was made on the 17th that the school opening would be postponed again to April 6. Experts' opinions that schools could become major sources of infection in the community and that infections could start from children and spread to families and then society were persuasive.

However, as the school opening postponement continues, the responsibility for educational gaps and childcare is entirely left to families. In particular, childcare issues such as daycare are again being transferred to women within the household.

Although this is an unprecedented situation, next week marks the fourth week of the school opening postponement. It is about time to come up with proper alternatives, but the government still seems unable to prepare any measures other than emergency childcare and family care leave. In this situation, it is no exaggeration to say that mothers' daily lives are on the verge of explosion. On the 17th, a mother and her child with developmental disabilities were found dead together in Jeju Island.

It is presumed that the mother took an extreme step after being forced to care for her child attending a special school alone 24 hours a day. According to media reports, the child applied for emergency childcare due to the school opening postponement but did not attend school.

Emergency childcare was provided by the government on the 28th of last month to fill the childcare gap for children in need, along with the school closure extension. However, the application rate is low: 2.2% (60,490 children) for elementary schools and 5.0% (1,315 children) for special schools. When emergency childcare was announced, the operating hours were stated as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which sparked outrage among parents. For working parents, 5 p.m. is too early to pick up their children after work.

They say they will create online lectures, but
what about environments without internet,
or whether first graders can manage

The Ministry of Education hurriedly extended emergency childcare hours to 7 p.m. Kim Sohyang, an activist from Political Moms, pointed out, "No parent thinks their child is safe just because emergency childcare exists," adding, "That’s because there is no trust in the system." Kim said, "It’s just shifting responsibility onto teachers and children under administrative gaps."

The situation is even more serious for single-parent families. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Single Parent Federation, single parents face economic crises due to unemployment (47.5%) and childcare issues (26.7%). The employment rate of single-parent household heads is relatively high at 84.2%, but many work in service industries such as call centers, and the proportion of daily workers is also high. Moreover, since they have to care for their children entirely alone, they face double hardships. A single parent living in Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk, said, "I work as an accountant at a sports center, but I am currently on unpaid leave and don’t know how long I will be off, so I’m struggling with living expenses."

The above photo is not related to the article.

There are also office workers who have already used up the family care leave system, which allows a maximum of five days (ten days for single parents) of paid leave. Lee, 31, living in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, said, "I used all my care leave this week expecting the school to reopen normally next week," adding, "Since the school opening has been postponed, the government should extend paid leave additionally."

Each metropolitan and provincial office of education is preparing online lectures as the closure prolongs. Teachers autonomously create learning content for students to use at home. However, judging from the precedent of universities that have been conducting online lectures since the 16th, it seems practically impossible to conduct classes. Some students do not have computers or smart devices or cannot access the internet at home. Especially for first graders who have not even crossed the school threshold yet, making them attend online lectures is unreasonable.

Globally, school closures are just beginning,
but will school open on April 6?

If the COVID-19 situation had been judged to be prolonged from the start and the school opening had been postponed by a month in advance, would the situation have been more predictable than now? As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye said during the third postponement, "The school opening date is flexible. It could be earlier or later," if the closure period had been set longer preemptively and then shortened when the situation stabilized, wouldn’t the educational gap have been less than now?

Regarding this, a Ministry of Education official explained, "The decision to postpone school opening was made with priority on infection prevention, but at the same time, we must be ready to open schools at any time," adding, "We are comprehensively considering the situation moment by moment."

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye entered the briefing room at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 17th to announce the third postponement plan for the nationwide kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school openings. The government announced that the opening of kindergartens and elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide will be postponed for an additional two weeks, from the 23rd of this month to the 6th of next month. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

April 6. The school opening day postponed by the Ministry of Education even at the cost of reducing the number of school days. Will school really open then? Globally, the atmosphere is that school closures are just beginning. According to foreign media, on the 18th (local time), UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered all schools, from elementary to universities, to close starting the 20th. The school opening date will be announced later depending on the COVID-19 response situation. Italy, which has the highest number of confirmed cases in Europe, has been closed since the 4th, and France also issued an indefinite closure order from the 16th for daycare centers, elementary, middle, high schools, and universities, citing rapid virus spread among young people.

According to Education Week, a US education media outlet, as of 7 p.m. Eastern Time on the 18th, 39 states have closed schools, and even in states without official closure orders, 92,000 public and private schools have shut down. In Latin America, where the spread was somewhat slower, Colombia, Uruguay, and Chile decided to close schools as confirmed cases recently increased rapidly.